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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Fachliteratur
- Sprache: Englisch
A witty, insightful guide to rediscovering Purpose and leading like you mean it On Purpose is a modern-day business book for those who want to steer their work -- and life -- back on course. When your head and heart connect in both, our humanity becomes the hero in the story. Shed the mediocrity that comes from halfhearted decision-making, and rediscover your PLOT -- Purpose, Leadership, Operations, and Technology -- as you learn to live and lead with purpose. This insightful guide provides a framework for re-evaluating your direction, then stepping back and re-aiming the ship. It starts with a fable that illustrates just how businesses lose their PLOT every day, then digs down to the nitty-gritty to give you the actionable steps and practical advice you need to climb out of the rut. Deliberately ironic and witty, this book presents a fun, but informative read that is anything but cynical. You'll learn from the author's own successes using PLOT in her career, as she turned a $9M business into a $100M business and went on to drive international and domestic philanthropic ventures and leadership training programmes. * PLOT will become the most practical four-letter word you'll ever use. This book shows you how a simple framework can become the turnaround your organisation and life so desperately need. Get your work on target * Shift engagement methods for better results * Leverage technology into a purposeful tool * Get up and act You may already have a documented vision and mission statement, but that's no longer sufficient. You need to act and lead with purpose, every day, in every decision you make. You need to recognise and utilise good people and tools, and redefine your goals to make them worth striving for. On Purpose shows you how, and gives you the practical, tested guidance you need to start moving in the right direction.
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Seitenzahl: 292
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2015
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Okay, I will admit Karen James went to school with my kids, Lisa, Danielle and Shannon. Well, so what! That doesn't mean I don't know what an excellent book is. On Purpose is important because we all need to find the path to what matters in life. Reading is learning and learning is the path. We all need to get on one. Karen did …
— Bob Gaudio, songwriter, producer, founding member of The Four Seasons, inspiration for the Jersey Boys
On Purpose provides a simple formula to transcend your organisation's purpose into action and literally get everyone on-purpose. Karen's methods and leadership are exemplary, as experienced over the six years we have worked together. She is infectious and brings real purpose to any endeavour, including now her book.
— Symon Brewis-Weston, CEO Sovereign Insurance (wholly owned by Commonwealth Bank), one of five business leaders to be awarded the Winner United Nations 2015 Women's Empowerment Principles Chief Executive leadership award
Karen is one of the most purpose-driven people I have ever met. She operates with a strong sense of ethics and humanity. The philosophy and the framework behind On Purpose is great advice for anyone who wants to transform themselves and their organisation.
— Janet Holmes à Court AC
Today's world needs this book — delivered with wit, humour and cut through New York style, Karen's decade of experience in life and business is bottled up in a fable, a manifesto and a practical framework that will get you and your organisation on-purpose. The complex made simple. I love it and look forward to joining Karen to create a movement to mobilise on-purpose leaders.
— Ronni Kahn, CEO and Founder of OzHarvest, the first perishable food rescue organisation in Australia, now in its 10th year. Winner of Veuve Clicquot Initiative for Economic Development 2012, Ernst & Young Social Entrepreneur of the Year 2012, and Australian Local Hero of the Year 2010
On Purpose is a book which simplifies Karen's deep understanding of how to make things happen in the business world into a framework for every person and organisation. Karen's ability to take an idea and turn it into reality is first class — and I know that firsthand from my participation in the Commonwealth Bank's Women in Focus program. For more than a quarter of a century through a journey of ups and downs that the faint-hearted would have given in, Karen's track record is On Purpose's testimony. Getting to the how is as important as the why — On Purpose brings the two together in a formula that I look forward to promoting.
— Naomi Simson, Founding Director RedBalloon
on PURPOSE
Why great leaders start with the PLOT
Karen James
First published in 2015 by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd 42 McDougall St, Milton Qld 4064 Office also in Melbourne
© KBSN Pty Ltd 2015
The moral rights of the author have been asserted
National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication data:
Creator:
James, Karen, author.
Title:
On Purpose : Why great leaders start with the PLOT / Karen James.
ISBN:
9780730322467 (pbk.) 9780730322474 (ebook)
Notes:
Includes index.
Subjects:
Business — Decision making. Business planning. Industrial management. Success in business.
Dewey Number:
658.406
All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the Australian Copyright Act 1968 (for example, a fair dealing for the purposes of study, research, criticism or review), no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, communicated or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written permission. All inquiries should be made to the publisher at the address above.
All internal images and illustrations © KBSN Pty Ltd. Illustrations in Part I created by New Way Solutions, Argentina, and KBSN Pty Ltd.
Cover design by Wiley
Cover image: © Eivaisla / iStockphoto.com
Author photograph by Franki Pollick Photography
DisclaimerThe material in this publication is of the nature of general comment only, and does not represent professional advice. It is not intended to provide specific guidance for particular circumstances and it should not be relied on as the basis for any decision to take action or not take action on any matter which it covers. Readers should obtain professional advice where appropriate, before making any such decision. To the maximum extent permitted by law, the author and publisher disclaim all responsibility and liability to any person, arising directly or indirectly from any person taking or not taking action based on the information in this publication.
To my daughters, Ashley and MadisonIn memory of my mother — Kath, Mom, Gran
CONTENTS
Foreword
About the Author
Acknowledgements
Introduction
The Fable (Back to School)
Manifesto
PLOT
Part I The Fable (Back to School)
Meet the characters
Chapter 1 BACK TO SCHOOL
Welcome to Ms Molloy
Week one, day one
Week one, day three
Week one, day four
Week one, day five
Week two, day one
Week two, day two
Week two, day three
Week two, weekend
Week three, weekend
Week three, day one
Week four, day one
Week four, day five
Week five, day one
Week five, day two
Week six, day one
Week six, day five
Week seven, day one
Ten years on
Epilogue
Part II Manifesto
What's with the story?
The power of our story
A bit about Ms Molloy
A bit about Bob
Business dialogue in the class(/board)room
Part III PLOT
Chapter 2 PURPOSE
The core
Real-life stories
Start with the cause
Find the meaning
Listen to the calling of your employees
Chapter 3 LEADERSHIP
Power made by many
Complications
Meaning is catching
So, what to be?
Theory U
The globalisation groundswell
Step into the collective
Chapter 4 OPERATIONS
The heart of everything
The flow-on from purpose-rich operations
Design the shape for your purpose
Money, money, money
Servicing constituents the world over
To lead we must manage
You can control the process
How do you keep good people?
Creating loyalty in large organisations
Lens of rationalisation
The enquiry model
Dealing with the devil
What we measure matters
Momentum of data
Chapter 5 TECHNOLOGY
Is your technology telling your story?
Technology and your underberg
The last 10 per cent matters
Drilling deeper to put technology into PLOT
Chapter 6 ACTION
The PLOT Framework
Afterword
Notes
Smartboard
Index
Advert
EULA
List of Tables
Chapter 5
Table 5.1:
Table 5.2:
List of Illustrations
Chapter 3
Figure 3.1:
celebration circle
Figure 3.2:
Theory U
Chapter 6
Figure 6.1:
PLOT Framework
Guide
Cover
Table of Contents
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FOREWORD
I loved this book and read it in one sitting, give or take a few tea and coffee breaks. Karen James has written about business in a fresh and beguiling way and it is understood from the beginning that she loves both business and education as I do. She just wants them to be better and her manifesto offers advice about how we might change.
These are not changes that require regulation by government but changes in how we play the game and take personal responsibility for change. She reminds us that values statements hanging on the company walls or coming up on the screen matter not a toss if people do not live them.
On Purpose is a cleverly constructed book, as we might expect from its engineer author. Each section can stand alone or be connected — a sublime literary and engineering feat.
The Fable evoked powerful memories for me as I reflected on my first classroom experience. Planning a career as a secondary school teacher I was surprised to be assigned to a primary school for my first practice teaching my postgraduate year. My supervisor considered that exposure and early practice with 8–12 year olds offered the best experience for a teaching career. He was right.
More than five decades later I work in different classrooms and boardrooms but how I loved being thrown back into Ms Molloy's classroom in Glen Fark County with a group of 8-year-olds whose first project of the year is to build a bank.
They go back to basics as they ask: What does a bank do? What is its purpose? Does it have values? Would we want to work there?
Ms Molloy suggests the children include their parents in the project and the outcomes are surprising but you need to read that for yourself.
On Purpose is a contemporary cautionary ethical tale, a fable we can all understand. It reminds us we should never underestimate the capacity of 8-year-olds to manage complexity with purpose, ethics and humanity, all the big words they were asked to consider as they followed the PLOT methodology. It was sad to leave Ms Molloy's classroom. It was an exciting learning place.
In the Manifesto our author writes of her central thesis that there must be a meaningful purpose at the core of our lives and our organisations. We need to keep our heads and hearts connected in order to live purpose-filled lives.
It is hard to disagree but for many of us we need to know how to achieve that.
The PLOT framework — Purpose, Leadership, Operations and Technology — is offered as a methodology to facilitate discussion, raise questions, challenge, gauge and monitor attainment of an on-purpose organisation.
This book could become the new black for business.
How could you not aspire to be on-purpose personally or professionally?
Wendy McCarthy AO
Educator, Mentor, Non-executive Director
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Fast-talking, funny and pulling no punches, Karen James is a Jersey girl turned social entrepreneur who has risen through the ranks of the global corporate world while honouring her most important role in life as a proud single mother and humanitarian. From building with her team a 10 000-strong community of women within a leading bank, to integrating not-for-profit leadership lessons into corporate boardrooms and growing a company from a turnover of $9 million to a turnover of $100 million, Karen is a fixer and a doer who matches head with heart — and makes it everyone's business to do the same.
In her debut book, Karen applies the same pragmatic logic to timeless questions around creating purpose and building an organisation with humanity at its heart.
Her company, BEact Pty Ltd, helps others to embed this same logic into their own lives and organisations to create a truly sustainable world that we can all benefit from.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
To my readers, thank you for taking the time and energy to read On Purpose. Without you the book has no purpose.
To my family and framily (friends who are family) — without you I would not be who I am today and I would not know how on earth anything would be possible. You are everything to me.
To my team who has been pivotal in this book, who believed in me and the idea, and who I look forward to working with as our journey continues.
To the community of women who have united to help each other — you believed in me, you let me dance like Ellen, and you lit the flame for this book.
To the people I have worked with, and for, over many years and countries — thank you for trusting and believing in me and my ideas.
To my creative Argentinian illustrators for bringing the characters of the fable to life.
To Wiley for giving me the opportunity to publish this book and bring it to life.
To the gift from above. I know my hand is not on my steering wheel and I am humbled to be given the life I have. Thank you for putting PLOT in my heart and for directing me to turn right (you will understand this after you read On Purpose).
INTRODUCTION
A business book with a fable; why read it?
‘Interesting', you may think (or not!) — ‘what's that all about?'. Let me introduce you to On Purpose, a book of three parts: The Fable (Back to School); the Manifesto; and PLOT, the business book.
Sometimes going back and seeing things the way we did when we were children helps us to clarify what's really important and why. The fable takes you on the journey of a teacher setting her Grade 3 students the assignment of building a bank. Along the way a diverse group of eight-year-olds learn important lessons about ethics and humanity and how these values need to be woven into the organisations of our future.
The second part of the book is the bridge between the fictitious and the future. Aptly titled, the Manifesto is a declaration of intentions. It unpacks the intentions of On Purpose and its fable in preparation for practical application in your business, and potentially your life — bringing intentions to the front of the classroom.
The third part of the book is the practical application — showing how great businesses PLOT their success by linking Purpose, Leadership, Operations and Technology. At the end of this book you will understand the importance of making purpose the driver of your organisation, and be able to practically monitor your progress through the purpose-led PLOT Framework.
On Purpose is a book to act on.
The Fable (Back to School)
Many years ago I realised that I was a storyteller — at home, at work, at play. At work it seemed that there were many stories: it was the story of the customer, the story of the employee, the story of the vision, the story of success that always hit the mark much faster than the documents, PowerPoint presentations and reports. These stories connected us all through our humanity. So it seemed natural to begin with a fable to interpret the context of the book through the eyes of a child, and through the subtle lessons of life that are so readily seen when we are young.
My life has been shaped by my ‘teachers': my school teachers; my mother; my grandmother Bebe; my great-aunts; my cousins; and my ‘framily' (friends who have become family). We need teachers. Without teachers we believe the rhetoric, and when we believe the rhetoric we start behaving as though it is the truth.
There is something very humbling about being a student, being open to learning and being open to change — and opportunity often lies in the shadow of change. The fable introduces the purpose-led PLOT Framework through innocence, creativity, opportunity, a dash of humour and connection. I hope you connect with one or more of the characters. It is connection with the characters of our world that binds us and creates the magic.
I don't want to spoil the fable so I shall leave you to read on. Look for the subtle leadership lessons — they are fast and furious.
Manifesto
Engineers are taught early on the importance of the simple truss when building bridges — that beautiful structural frame based on the geometric strength of the triangle. This book's bridge, the Manifesto, binds (or trusses) the fable to the world of business by outlining the importance of intentions. It is a passage out of the fable and into the business book, simplifying and strengthening the message of the importance of being and acting on-purpose in today's changing world.
PLOT
The third part of the book, PLOT, provides a framework for organisational and business application of Purpose, Leadership, Operations and Technology and, most importantly, explains how to instil and ingrain these into our lives — at home and at work. Our purpose (the thing that really matters) and meaning (the reason it matters to us) are foundational, but without action it is just a story. We need to know how to do this. Practically. On purpose. I don't mean the idiom that gets thrown at you when you are a child. I'm talking about compelling purposes you live and work by, and the ability to turn those intentions into actions.
The Action chapter introduces three tools to bring it all to life. The PLOT Framework acts as a gauge to track how your purpose and leadership are integrated into your operations and technology. The customisable mobile app brings the message alive by sharing purpose, leadership, what you are doing and how you are doing things — creating a storyboard that celebrates your success, chronicles your journey and connects everyone along the way. The presentation templates (PowerPoint and Prezi) are included in the event that you are a bit like me and enjoy the story but not the documentation.
* * *
Linking and threading purpose seamlessly through leadership, operations and technology is hard work and is a relentless pursuit. Pull one thread out and you start to unravel the possibility of greatness and success. This is the key point of the book and the PLOT Framework — all four matter in our unpredictable, digitised future.
My hope for you is that you enjoy and are transformed by this book, one page at a time.
PART IThe Fable (Back to School)
We've all been eight years old, innocent and wide-eyed. We've all been students willing and wanting to learn. And we've all had a teacher we loved.
This modern-day fable seeks to help us find — and stay true to — our purpose when we're charting off course.
Our fable is set in Glen Fark County, post GFC, in a world where reality TV takes precedence and the size of celebrities' derrières is at the front of too many people's minds.
Our all-seeing narrator takes us into Ms Molloy's classroom, where a class of students will soon begin work on one of their most challenging assignments yet: learning leadership lessons of a complex business world and staying true to these, no matter the circumstance.
It's an adult world — you'd think, at least — so the children seek a little help from one of the parents, Bob. Bob is a hard-working banker (and, as you will soon see, many of us have worked for, or with, a ‘Bob').
I hope you enjoy the fable in all its irony, which may weave some morals and lessons through a little piece of your world. Some are stated, some are subtle and some are specific only for a few of us — unique for ‘our' stories. A free-form Smartboard has been created in the back of the book for the note-takers like me (give me digital, but please let me keep my Moleskine notebook). With or without notes, it, as we say in New Jersey, may help you to get shit done.
Oh, just one more thing: every good fable features an animal and this one is no different. There's an elephant in the room. See if you can find it …
Meet the characters
The adults
Ms Molloy teaches Glen Fark County Elementary School's Grade 3 class, which is filled with wide-eyed eight-year-olds. She is a firm but fair teacher with a huge heart. Our narrator will introduce you to her shortly.
Mrs Laforte is the assistant principal, a career teacher committed to the betterment of children and society. She has a heart of gold and coaches the teachers regularly to be bold and creative.
Mrs Doogan is the wire-haired, affable principal, who knows she has to follow the rules although she would rather get back to basics and hug the children like she used to in the 1970s.
Vikki is Betsy's mum and works in the IT industry. She loves getting involved in the school and is committed to making sure her daughter Betsy has everything that a two-parent-family child has.
Steve works for Synergy Bank and looks after the school banking program. He knows the importance of good customer service but is often torn between customers and process.
Bob is a banker who works in New York City. He grew up in a working-class blue-collar town in New Jersey, and grafted his way to Wall Street. Bob is a family man, a businessman, and — well, you will learn more about him as you read on.
The students
Bobby is the son of Bob the banker. Bobby is not sure of himself and is sometimes nervous. He knows he wants to be more than the influences around him.
Nicholas is earnest and eager. He is very smart and has a sharp sense of bringing the team with him. Nicholas builds bridges between people even at the young age of eight.
Abby is quiet but profound. Most of the class knows she has the answers; they just need to give her the chance to be heard. Sally and Abby are good friends.
Sally has the nickname ‘Swivel Neck' because she is always turning around in class and just cannot sit still. She is constantly observing but she is also a bit of a chatterbox. Sally has itchy feet, so they say.
Julia is a very smart high achiever. She should probably be advanced a year and put in a program for the gifted. Julia sometimes forgets to wait for her classmates to catch up.
Betsy is a natural sharer with an innate sense of empathy. She loves helping others and is very determined to do so.
David and Johnny Hehman are the twin sons of a controversial investment banker. They are relatively new to town and are often getting in trouble.
CHAPTER 1BACK TO SCHOOL
The purpose of life is a life of purpose.
— Robert Burns
Once upon a time, in a land filled with wi-fi, 24-hour news and too much fast food, our teacher Ms Molloy prepared for the school year ahead.
Ms Molloy knows she has a big year ahead of her — new students, an updated curriculum, a daily goal of 10 000 steps (always tracked on her wrist), and the usual aches and pains that come from dealing with a few high-maintenance parents and their long-suffering kids.
What Ms Molloy doesn't realise is that this year she will create a ripple effect that will change a family's life forever, for the better, and that countless others will benefit from her teachings.
Why? Because Ms Molloy lives her life on-purpose and she has a plan. Without a plan, purpose can be meaningless, and a purpose without meaning quickly loses its way.
Ms Molloy's purpose is to make a measured difference in the development of her students, particularly those from disadvantaged families. Her how, which helps her to act with her purpose in mind, is evident in the way she treats her students: with respect, equality and a firm eye on their future.
This is why Ms Molloy's teachings are not just about school but also about life — and, specifically for this assignment, about business.
I am the narrator, by the way, better known as the voice that appears as a thought bubble above people's heads. I am that guiding, nagging feeling we all get when our gut tickles away at our conscience. I jump forward or backward in time to hold a mirror up to the truth when the occasion requires.
But back to Ms Molloy. Every year Ms Molloy asks the kids in her class to build their own organisation. She loves the hands-on teaching experiences it gives. But this year she wants to take it further, to immerse the children as much as possible in their assignment, so that the lessons on business, humanity and life are abundantly clear and felt by all — through the how, or the doing, as Ms Molloy often calls it.
To kick-start these sessions and frame them in a little context, she plans to introduce what she calls New Big Words.
Each year Ms Molloy's New Big Words change to reflect the tide of trends and the shift in the global picture. Today she is at her desk at home with the fresh smell of autumn blowing through her window and a cup of tea sweating on the coaster.
She's doodling away in the big white sketchpad that she buys ten at a time from the local stationers and fills solely with words. Those clean paper surfaces always help the right words to flow forth, and her sketchpad moments give her great satisfaction.
This year, Ms Molloy has decided that her New Big Words are ‘humane', ‘humanity', ‘ethical' and ‘collaborate'. These four words are vigorously circled in her sketchpad, springing forth from the mind map that surrounds them. She's chosen these words to show her students how they can become courageous leaders who put humanity into the heart of smart business, with good outcomes resulting when grounded in the details of doing.
But on with the story. It opens at the start of a new school year at Glen Fark County Elementary, in a Grade 3 classroom where there are more Frozen lunchboxes and Minecraft drink bottles than one could even imagine.
Welcome to Ms Molloy
The playground at GFC Elementary School, New Jersey, is buzzing with the frenetic kind of excitement that goes nowhere and everywhere all at once.
It is the first day of the new school year, which means plenty of tears and heartache. ‘And that's just the parents', Ms Molloy thinks to herself as she scrapes old adhesive off the classroom walls with her fingernail.
Ms Molloy is not your typical teacher (if there even is such a thing). She values teachings that are humane and ethical and thinks large scale: for the collaborative betterment of humanity. It might sound rather large and lofty, but Ms Molloy is nothing if not serious about her ability to teach others.
Her teaching tactics divide the parents and teachers around her. Some love her purpose-driven teaching style while others resent their child missing out on the participation prize they had earmarked for display.
Regardless, Ms Molloy knows she is here to create opportunities that empower her students to think independently. Ironically, it's what they did at the start of their lives, but fear and traditional education has a habit of intercepting this gift along the way.
The interception lives on, of course. Just look at how many adults are quick to agree to bad ideas during workplace powwows because they are frightened to speak their mind — or worse, because they don't know how to. ‘If only “confrontation” wasn't such a bad word', Ms Molloy thinks, as she reaches for her phone.
As her wandering thumb starts dancing around her favourite social media sites, a strange ball of emptiness starts growing in her stomach. ‘Why are you wasting your time with this?' she chides herself, turning her phone face down. Ms Molloy always asks why. This emerging global shift towards the why is not the reason she turns to the word so often. Not at all. Ms Molloy was taught the power of why by her down-to-earth mother and her training at university.
‘The word “why” will always eventually lead you back to what is important', her favourite teacher, Geoff Jones, had explained, his shirt button undone in the days when hairy chests were all the rage. ‘When confronted or at a crossroads, keep asking your future students and yourself why until there is no place to go, except the truth.'
Ms Molloy still believes in the power of those three letters — and she hears her students ask why enough times to know its effect. But she has realised that having the why without the how is like having only one side of a conversation. You need to be clear on your purpose, and know how you are going to bring it to life, for real change to take place.
Keep asking why, until there's no place to go except the truth.
To this day, whenever Ms Molloy asks her students why, she digs down to the heart of what is real. When she asks them how they are going to do the why … well, that's where the hard work starts. Ms Molloy knows these are big questions for young people, but by asking them to build these questions into their day-to-day lives now, the why and the how should become second nature to them in their adult years.
Ask an eight-year-old why and you never know what you might uncover.
Ms Molloy has already put her term teaching plan together. She has always been the kind of person who gets an endorphin rush from stocking up on materials for the year.
When the last corner of her teaching plan is stuck to the back of the door, Ms Molloy thinks back to last year's new organisation assignment. It had caused a stir when the children went home to tell their parents all about the New Big Words, in very solemn voices. She had sent the students home with oversized printouts of the New Big Words, hoping they would start to bring these values into their lives, even on a subconscious level. The printouts were plastered with gaudy glitter, which did nothing to win over the less conspiratorial parents, either.
This year Ms Molloy has decided the organisation will be a bank. Banks are topical and often in the news, so she is confident this will get her class thinking about the New Big Words, even if they are yet to be embraced by all the banks. Ethical leadership values are becoming more accepted as part of the curriculum, and are expected to take more of a centre stage in business. Ms Molloy's socially responsible New Big Words now had a place.
Not just a place. They would change lives. But we're jumping ahead of ourselves, because in this fable, as in life, opportunity often lies in the shadow of change.
Week one, day one
Purpose-setting
The bell is still a little while off and Ms Molloy has scheduled some time to sit and reflect. She believes that you must plan time to do what is important and you must honour this as you would any other appointment, or it won't happen. Nothing happens until it is scheduled.
She sits on her favourite padded chair in the classroom and carries out a quick ritual that she likes to perform before any meeting, but especially before meeting her students for the very first time: a recap of her purpose.
As it is for many, Ms Molloy's purpose has been borne out of frustration and knowing what she did not want to do. Knowing what you don't want is just as important as knowing what you do want. Her purpose comes from having dived into those things around her that frustrate her most deeply, knowing she could do them better, and then choosing the one that matters most to her.
Ms Molloy's years of frustration were at ‘the system'. She saw too many students being disadvantaged by a lack of money, support or structure, and she knew how it felt. While she had not been brought up in poverty, her upbringing had skated close to it. There were days when they would only eat cereal for dinner and there were other days when dinners became more healthy affairs, depending on her mother's work. They would try to make this fun, calling their ‘breakfast dinners' ‘upside-down' days, but everyone around the table knew better.
Paying for an excursion was always a big deal, much as her mother tried to make out that it wasn't. Ms Molloy would stay at home and feign illness. She secretly hoped someone from school might phone up to see what was happening, but no-one ever did.
These days, Ms Molloy is quick to spot children acting in her younger mirror-image. She understands those who lack the brazen confidence that can come from a young life of privilege. This is why her purpose is to make a measured difference in the development of her students, particularly those from disadvantaged families. She believes we are all deeply connected and equal — even more so now that technology has built a net around us.
